Hysteria – Phantoms of Freedom

Inspired by Luis Buñuel, Karin Beier opens the season with a play about a society in the state of fear. A family returns from Asia where they lived as expatriates for a number of years. They plan to celebrate their return with colleagues, friends, and neighbours, but their uncertainty as well as that of their guests is great: Does their return to Germany mark a social descent or an ascent? What kind of country are they returning to? Who are those people out there? And what is it that this new neighbour wants from them?

The foundation of the new house seems to stand on shaky ground. And the gaze through the glass facade at what used to be home and what is supposed to become home once again falls on mysterious signs. Familiar phrases suddenly sound threatening, thoughts reveal conspiracy, and every news item deals with disaster. Private as well as political life turn out to be caught up in an infinite state of crises. It does not take much to turn uncertainty into fear and fear into hysteria.

Photos © David Baltzer